Sharon Leahy-Clark: Rolling the Rock

About

The drawings and paintings in this show continue the themes Sharon has been exploring throughout her practice. These involve a reference to language as a way of making sense through ordering and structuring thought to be able to communicate and function as a society.  Sharon is particularly interested in how we make sense of a seemingly absurd and irrational existence and explores several ideas involved in this including: The poetic, which provides space for the ‘imperfect’ and for not making sense. The outsider, as a construct. And; in the repetition of image and pattern which act as mantras, utterances, stutterings and prayers which hold the ‘magic’ that allow us momentarily to forget our viscerality (symbolised in the motif of the horse and the predominant colour used in her work, red).

Sharon works in a quick, ‘hands on’ intuitive way. Drawing is central to her practice and she uses a variety of materials to draw with – paint, pencil, clay, found images etc – crossing borders with several genres, she uses whatever materials are right for the particular piece she is involved in making. By working intuitively the work grows organically, without editing, and the poetic qualities of the materials and all working processes and natural accidents (drips etc) are incorporated and left visible.

The final pieces which have evolved from working in this way inhabit a space on the edge of language/reason. At first glance, they make sense as something known and recognisable. However, on closer inspection this familiarity is questioned and the images hint at another, deeper, otherworldly understanding.

Rolling the Rock’ is a reference to Sisyphus in Greek mythology.